Apple's new A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 Pro has even surpassed desktop processors like the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in preliminary tests. How did Apple achieve this, and the role played by its first-ever vapor chamber cooling system?
A19 Pro Sets a New Standard
Apple's new A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air demonstrates significant performance improvements over the previous generation. The processor scored 4019 in the single-core test and 11054 in the multi-core test, representing 13.7% and 22.5% improvements over the iPhone 16 Pro Max, respectively.
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The new chip's single-core performance even surpasses desktop processors like AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X by 11.8% (data from Tom's Hardware). These results are from preliminary tests published on the Geekbench 6 database (https://browser.geekbench.com/search?q=iphone18).
The GPU Delivers the Biggest Performance Leap
Technically, the A19 Pro is based on a six-core CPU and a six-core GPU clocked at up to 4.26 GHz. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also features 12GB of RAM, up from the previous 8GB.
Apple introduced vapor chamber cooling technology to an iPhone for the first time, enabling higher sustained performance and reducing stuttering during gaming or high-load situations. This is particularly evident in graphics performance: the A19 Pro scored 45,995 on the Metal test, a 37.9% improvement over the previous generation. Despite its streamlined five-core GPU, the iPhone Air still boasts 15% higher graphics performance than the A18 Pro.
Apple's focus isn't on impressive benchmark leaps, but rather on power efficiency, thermal management, and improvements to the Neural Engine for AI applications.
Keyword efficiency
Apple claims that thanks to the combination of the A19 Pro and vapor chamber cooling technology, it delivers up to 40% performance improvements, making it ideal for gaming, video editing, and local AI models. The Geekbench results align with the official specifications Apple announced at the iPhone 17 launch event. On the product page, Apple promises a 20% increase in CPU performance over the two-year-old A17 Pro. This underscores the realistic expectation of year-over-year chip performance improvements. What do you think of the new benchmark results? Is a 15% CPU performance boost worth upgrading to the iPhone 17 Pro, or should you wait?
